Christie’s Imp-Mod Day sale = $51m: The day sale broke down into $36,149,625 for paintings and $15,116,625 for works on paper. …

While We Are On the Subject of Leonardo: Le Monde published a long history of the Salvator Mundi restoration which includes a two different quotes from Yves Bouvier to Dmitry Rybolovlev. In one, Bouvier warns the billionaire against buying the work; in the next, he congratulates himself on negotiating a great price for the work even as he keeps hidden the tens of millions in profit his is charging Rybolovlev.

Ironically, that sale has made tonight’s sale of the the painting possible. Each successive transaction—the $80m Bouvier paid; the $127m Rybolovlev paid; the $100m the guarantor paid—adds to the confidence level of any prospective buyer about the work’s desirability. There’s no point in arguing about the painting’s authenticity. There’s enough of a consensus on that to have a legitimate margin of error for the attribution. All else is up to the buyer to determine with his or her gut.